New global regulatory mechanisms and the environment - The emerging linkage between the WTO and the ISO

This article seeks to highlight the emerging linkage between the World Trad e Organisation (WTO) and the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO). This relationship is seen against a background of liberalisation, a nd more generally of profound changes in the structure of global governance . Indeed, after having promoted deregulation on a massive scale, the time s eems to be ripe to reintroduce regulation, albeit in a new format. Standard s, especially environmental standards, appear to provide new forms of globa l regulation. As a result, we witness the emergence of new forms of actor a rrangements, dominated by private, as opposed to public actors.